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@Jockie: Ah. I'm at about level 34 now and am still doing fine with magic. I'm working towards maxing out enchantment for infinimana (honestly, I'm fine with the damage output, I just need more magicka) but for now a good compromise to buy myself more regen time has been to outfit a housecarl with enchanted ebony armor and Drain Health weaponry. Yes, Argis, keep that Deathlord busy while I blast you both with Flame Wall and then wait to cast Incinerate; don't worry, you can take it!

Speaking of companions, is it my imagination or do they receive infinite arrows and infinite weapon charges? I'm not saying its a bad thing--it's actually a good way to compensate for their simple-mindedness--but I'm not clear on how this works. And do they get infinite arrows if I give them arrows?

i noticed my slave equipped arrows i gave him and used them. Probably because they were better than standard but yes, they do have infinite arrows. I think they might even have a bow if you don't see it in their inventory. I'm not sure but i think i saw my mage slave with a bow a few times and i sure as hell didn't give her any. Maybe i'm just crazy.

The followers have some basic gear, both melee and ranged weapons that you can't see by trading them, but if they die you can see them if you loot their bodies. They have infinite arrows but will use any better ones you give them (as with all the other gear).

I'm not sure speech skill is a good place to put perks. There aren't many speech checks in the game and though the extra money might be very tempting early on, once you've leveled up a bit money isn't really an issue while perks are invaluable.

Smithing is nice, but I'm a bit annoyed since I realised that even though my character is a sneaky thief and uses light armour I ought to have gone with the heavy armour path as you get to make light and heavy dragon armour whichever way you go and heavy gives you access to better weapons.

Sneak and bows is proving a very powerful combination when crawling through dungeons so far. Everything that isn't a boss will die from one sneak attack and even if other enemies come looking for you, you can either take them all down with sneak attacks before they locate you or quickly retreat and come back for another round on your own terms. Single very powerful enemies are much harder, especially if they get the drop on you, since you lose all advantages when something big and angry is right in your face, but getting a fully upgraded sword with a paralyse enchant coated in poison has helped with that.

Worth mentioning perhaps that the archery perk that slows down time when you're zoomed in doesn't let you fire arrows faster but makes it much easier to aim at moving targets. Not so sure that spending two points in to increase it to 50% is worthwhile. The perk that lets you move faster also seems a little pointless for a thief who wants to do quick hit and run attacks or pick enemies off from the shadows.

Followers seem to get infinite arrows, but not infinite sword charges. I've had to recharge the enchanted sword and dagger combo I made for Janessa several times. That girl is beast when you upgrade her equipment.

As far as magic goes, I've got enough Magica boosting and regenerating gear now that I have basically unlimited spell casting. The robes you get at the end of the Magic College questline are a good starting point for decking out your mages.

The whole iron dagger system is broken, I hope it gets patched out. I resisted the urge and only leveled my smithing with the highest grades I currently had skilled. It's slower, but in the end, doesn't feel like I'm gaming the system even if I just end up buying up ebony and dwarven alloy everywhere. Enchanting though leaves you with little choice, you can only wear 6-7 items, and so you're forced to enchant garbage stuff simply for skilling. Alchemy is an amazing money machine, once you get the vendors to buy anything you can drain an entire city's net worth on pots every day.

The hardest skill to level IMO is speech, so what I've been doing is visiting the speech trainers every level. It's tedious, but since you can only train at one NPC per level, and it costs a crap load, it's worth it. Perhaps it's an illusion, but it also seems like I now have more options for persuade and threaten in quests. I started this practice late though, so will see if/how it changes the game by doing it from near the beginning.

Question: since there are light armor shields, can mages effectively use block and casting in main hand combined? My impression is that mages are supposed to use their magic wards a great deal to mitigate cast delays and survival in melee, but wouldn't their damage mitigation also stack with a physical shield?

Last edited by DigitalSignalX; 20-11-2011 at 12:49 AM.

All times I have enjoyed greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone.

You get speech skill increases from selling and buying, too. I don't know if bulk selling automatically applies a larger increase, but I suspect not (ie: I suspect you'd have to sell 1 item 10 times rather than sell 10 at once to get the maximum increase).

You get speech skill increases from selling and buying, too. I don't know if bulk selling automatically applies a larger increase, but I suspect not (ie: I suspect you'd have to sell 1 item 10 times rather than sell 10 at once to get the maximum increase).

Indeed, I think you're right. It still levels slow though, even when selling separate. Buying also seems to be faster then selling, as I inevitably will always get a level when I do a city circuit of ore/ingot buying for my smithing.

All times I have enjoyed greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone.

Question: since there are light armor shields, can mages effectively use block and casting in main hand combined? My impression is that mages are supposed to use their magic wards a great deal to mitigate cast delays and survival in melee, but wouldn't their damage mitigation also stack with a physical shield?

AFAIK yes, they can. At least you can equip a spell in the main hand and a shield in the off hand. When you get the perk that allows blocking to shield from some types of spell damage I guess it'd be even better since using a shield costs only fatigue if you get hit and doesn't take time to charge up.

Actually I'm starting to wonder if the armour/spell system is broken in that way, because it's easier to play as a battlemage-style character. In the other games wearing heavier armour would reduce your spell effectiveness... in Skyrim it doesn't seem to make a difference, except that mage clothing often comes with bonuses to magicka which you could probably get from enchanting anyway.

AFAIK yes, they can. At least you can equip a spell in the main hand and a shield in the off hand. When you get the perk that allows blocking to shield from some types of spell damage I guess it'd be even better since using a shield costs only fatigue if you get hit and doesn't take time to charge up.

Actually I'm starting to wonder if the armour/spell system is broken in that way, because it's easier to play as a battlemage-style character. In the other games wearing heavier armour would reduce your spell effectiveness... in Skyrim it doesn't seem to make a difference, except that mage clothing often comes with bonuses to magicka which you could probably get from enchanting anyway.

Heavy still effects stamina and walk speed. It can not be enchanted with mana regen, whereas some of the robes can get 100% regen + reduced cost on different schools of spells, not to mention stealth craft goes out the window. I was curious why they had light armor shields at all, so perhaps this style was anticipated.

All times I have enjoyed greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone.

Heavy still effects stamina and walk speed. It can not be enchanted with mana regen, whereas some of the robes can get 100% regen + reduced cost on different schools of spells, not to mention stealth craft goes out the window. I was curious why they had light armor shields at all, so perhaps this style was anticipated.

Question: since there are light armor shields, can mages effectively use block and casting in main hand combined? My impression is that mages are supposed to use their magic wards a great deal to mitigate cast delays and survival in melee, but wouldn't their damage mitigation also stack with a physical shield?

Why would anyone not dual cast spells? You stagger enemies so you can stun lock them until they die, even if it takes you a long time. No need to block if they never reach you or can't shoot back.

Originally Posted by DigitalSignalX

Heavy still effects stamina and walk speed. It can not be enchanted with mana regen, whereas some of the robes can get 100% regen + reduced cost on different schools of spells, not to mention stealth craft goes out the window. I was curious why they had light armor shields at all, so perhaps this style was anticipated.

I didn't feel any difference on walking but when sprinting my stamina depletes immediately.
Enchanting i can't agree with though. I can enchant heavy armor with mana regen(which is useless) or the awesome -% spell reduction cost(which is game breaking). Maybe you were talking about the different pieces of apparel? For example, i can't put anything on boots other than resist fire, shock or frost but that doesn't have anything to do with armor ratting.

I honestly didn't find any negative effect to wearing heavy armor as a pure mage. Kinda silly really. Once you enchant your own weapons it doesn't matter that the game only gives or sells you robes with mage bonuses. You can give yourself even better bonuses on any armor you want.

The main reason for me to wear no armor is burden, actually. As a mage I hardly ever increase Stamina so I don't have the extra burden units to spare -- I would rather use Stoneshield with the Mage Armor perk and wear some spiffy clothes from Radiant Raiment.

P.S. I could also bypass the burden problem with a companion, but I really would rather travel alone.

The main reason for me to wear no armor is burden, actually. As a mage I hardly ever increase Stamina so I don't have the extra burden units to spare -- I would rather use Stoneshield with the Mage Armor perk and wear some spiffy clothes from Radiant Raiment.

Oh that's actually a pretty good point, at least for the early part of the game where you'll be investing in major attributes (magicka and health for a mage) so I guess you'd be pretty hard up for carrying capacity if you wore heavy armour all the time.

W. Maybe you were talking about the different pieces of apparel? For example, i can't put anything on boots other than resist fire, shock or frost but that doesn't have anything to do with armor ratting.

I think they were trying to at least have the enchantments that can apply to armor have sort of basis in reality. For example, as an archer, I can enchant rings, helmets, and gloves to boost my archery damage. I guess the ring and gloves would be boosting the skill of my hands in actually working with the bow, and it applies to helmets because the magic is working on your eyesight and hand-eye coordination. It's also a balancing thing - if you could put the same maxed out enchantment on every piece of gear you're wearing, it could make you TOO powerful. And there are still a few dozen other exploits and sets of gear that overpower the character way too much.

It's also a balancing thing - if you could put the same maxed out enchantment on every piece of gear you're wearing, it could make you TOO powerful. And there are still a few dozen other exploits and sets of gear that overpower the character way too much.

The main reason for me to wear no armor is burden, actually. As a mage I hardly ever increase Stamina so I don't have the extra burden units to spare -- I would rather use Stoneshield with the Mage Armor perk and wear some spiffy clothes from Radiant Raiment.

P.S. I could also bypass the burden problem with a companion, but I really would rather travel alone.

The Tower guardian stone gives you +100 weight carrying ability, and makes all items of clothing/armour (including shields, I've noticed) not count towards your burden. It's pretty overpowered really - so naturally I use it all the time.

Yes - Nalano's right, all you have to do is buy all the iron you can (you should already have enough hides for more than enough leather strips if you've played a while) and make a million iron daggers (enter+click+enter+click+enter+click+enter+click).

If you want to get crazy, you can then enchant each of your million daggers, but this actually takes time. Souls don't grow on trees after all.

You mean The Steed, right, Fiyenyaa? That's a good suggestion. Also! I just discovered that bizarrely, there's a perk halfway through the Pickpocketing tree that gives you +100 carry weight as well! "Extra Pockets"...heee.